There are literally hundreds of CMSs on the market and to label them in a single category set is difficult. You could do it by:
- Server type
- Industry focus
- Feature sets
- Functionality
- Code bases
- Solution type
- Open source
- Proprietary
- Etc.
Enterprise CMS
An enterprise CMS is a robust, scalable solution that usually contains a host of services, including business logic, analytics, and content services. These solutions are typically used for large organizations with complex document and content needs.
General Purpose / Portal CMS
These systems don’t have a specific area of focus. but are designed to give you control over site architecture, content publishing, and site administration. Most of these systems are extensible, or have existing modules to functionality like: blogs, e-commerce, calendars, and other advanced functionality to your sites.
Blogs
Blogging software has evolved so much over the last 10 years that the majority of these platforms can be categorized as content management systems. Their focus is on the publishing and re-purposing of content.
Popular blogging systems include WordPress, movable Type, ExpressionEngine and Textpattern.
E-Learning
Lately, there has been an increasing amount of CMSs built to target the field of e-learning. Many of these systems have content modules built for learning objectives or educational content. Functionality like creating curriculum’s, building quizzes, SCORM compliancy, and support for multiple content types including PDFs, Word documents, images, video, and audio all as content types.
Popular e-learning systems include: Dot Learn, ATutor, Dokeos, Moodle, and Docebo.
eCommerce
eCommerce CMSs are really not full CMSs, but more specifically applications built to create and manage online shopping carts or e-commerce sites. These solutions focus on the very complicated and sensitive nature of online commerce – shopping carts, product management, billing and security.
Popular e-commerce systems include: Magento, Cubecart, OpenCart, Zen Cart and PrestaShop.
Most existing CMS platforms have e-commerce modules, extensions, or plug-ins that add most, if not all, of these features to existing installations.
Wikis
A much smaller group of CMSs allow you to create fully-featured Wikis. These types of sites are unique in that in addition to serving as a repository for information or content, these collaborative sites allow users to contribute or modify content.
Popular wiki platforms include: Tiki Wiki, DokuWiki, MediaWiki, and PmWiki.
Social Media
A relatively new type of CMS is the social media focused CMS. These systems have the capacity to build online communities, manage user profiles, tie in to existing social networks, and add features such as instant messaging and content uploading to your sites. These solutions are typically more specialized within their category than typical CMSs.
Popular social media platforms: BoonEx Dolphin, Elgg, phpFox and Rays.
Summary
Yes, most platforms have evolved to the point that they’re extremely flexible and can be used for a variety of purposes. They also feature extensions, plug- ins, and modules that add even more functionality to the mix.
The purpose of this information on this page is to inform you that there are more choices than just WordPress, Joomla! or Drupal.
You need to consider the entire project when choosing a CMS. In later sections, I will give you some ideas and additional resources to help you make that decision.